Rating:
 (4.8) (15 Votes)
Oslo, Bergen, Voss, Trondheim, Norway
May 26th, 2005
Pros: A great place to explore
Cons: None
Youth-hostelling is usually a great experience as you get to meet
fellow travellers from all corners of the globe, but sometimes
you would give anything for a hotel room with your own space and
a bit of privacy. Last night was one such night... We were in
a 13-bed dorm sharing with a man who was working his way towards
an entry in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the world's
loudest snorer. Even with earplugs, we could still hear this guy.
Naturally we didn't sleep well. At 4:00am some other bloke, who
had also been woken up by the earth-shaking rumbles, stretched
over, slapped Paul in the face and barked "Will you stop
snoring? You're keeping the entire dorm awake."
Paul was not happy at being awakened from what little sleep he
was able to get and he told this bloke so, in no uncertain terms.
Then he pointed out that the snoring had continued, and that perhaps
this bloke should check a little more carefully that he has the
right person before slapping anyone else!
For the rest of the night, not only did we have to put up with
the snorer, but also had the "slapping man" pacing around
the room muttering about how he couldn't sleep.
We travelled north through Sweden and into Norway on a Swedish
train. Now... we had read that Swedish trains are "efficient,
clean and comfortable" and perhaps our expectations were
too high, but we were both disappointed when we got onto a tatty
old train. The air conditioner vent over our seats was broken
and made us feel as if we were in a tornado for the entire 8 hour
journey, and the table was bent at such an angle that anything
we put on it immediately slid onto our laps. Although this train
was an InterCity, for which we had to pay a supplement, it stopped
at almost every station. Trains in Ialy are better than this!
Oslo station is a casualty of the mobile phone revolution - it
is the first station we have seen without public telephones! Having
traipsed half way across Oslo, we found a phone and called the
hostel for directions. The IYHF don't give you directios when
they confirm your booking... They like to create work by making
you call to find out how to get there when you arrive in the city.
We arrived at Oslo Haraldsheim hostel tired and hungry. The IYHF
"Europe 2001" book says that "all meals are available",
so we asked when and where dinner would be served.... "No
dinner, just breakfast"... Damn IYHF!
Apparently you can buy a "Pitta-Pocket" individually
wrapped frozen snack from reception and zap it in their microwave.
This is classed as a "meal" thus entitling them to claim
that "all meals are available". OK, so we are starving
backpackers who have been living off of bread and tinned tuna
for the last three months, but even we don't class a "Pitta-Pocket"
as a meal.
We walked to a 24-hour grocery store and bought some real food
to cook. At least the hostel has a kitchen. But, yet again, IYHF
failed to deliver... In a hostel for 266 people the kitchen is
equipped with just 4 electric cooking rings, one pot, one pan,
one frying-pan, and dinnerware for about 5 place-settings.
In Norway you really need to get up and go for a run before breakfast.
You certainly need an appetite for all that pickled herring with
onion, beetroots, gherkins and strange sweet brown cheese.
We bought a 24-hour ticket for Oslo buses, trams and ferries and
used it to visit almost all the tourist attractions. At the National
Gallery we followed the crowds to Edvard Munch's "Scream".
Tonya was more taken with his "Madonna" which hung beside
it. It is a rather erotic painting and Tonya was imagining the
response it would generate if it were to be hung in a church in
Italy. The National Gallery also houses a few paintings by Van
Gough, Picasso, Monet and other well known artists, but for the
most part, the collections are of Norwegian landscapes by obsure
Norwegian artists.
At 1:30pm we watched the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Residence.
The guy who was going off duty looked ready for a few drinks having
spent all morning standing in a sentry-box wearing a floppy toilet-brush
in his hat, and having coach loads of Japanese tourists shove
cameras in his face.
Determined to get full use from our transport passes we took a
ferry to Bygdoynes which is where several museums are located.
We visited the Viking Ship Museum which houses the world's two
best preserved Viking ships from the 9th century, and peeped into
the Fram Museum... through the windows we could see the Fram,
the original Artic explorer ship from 1892. Then we moved on to
the Kon-Tiki Museum which was the most interesting. We read all
about Thor Heyerdahl's expeditions and saw his original Kon-Tiki
balsa wood raft and also Ra II, the papyrus boat which he sailed
all the way from Morocco to Barbados.
We took the bus out to Vigelandsparken which is apparently Norway's
most visted tourist attraction and contains over 200 sculptures
by Gustav Vigeland. Neither of us had heard of it - Imagine if
it was the USA or UK and visiting tourists had not heard of Disneyland
or Buckingham Palace!
BERGEN
We arrived at Bergan Montana Hostel at 5pm and spent the evening
there. There was an English school group there whose teachers
were frantically marking a quiz the kids had done. They were awarded
2 points for each correct answer and one teacher was not able
to total up the scores without borring my calculator! It says
a lot about the quality of UK school teachers these days!
Bergen doesn't have much to see and we were glad we only had half
a day in town. There is a street of brightly painted traditional
wooden buildings called Bryggen that appears on every postcard,
and a fish market which was full of Japanese tourists buying hundreds
of dollars worth of lumpfish roe on their credit cards. They could
at least have bought "real" caviar.
There doesn't seem to be much to buy in Norway other than:-
- Caviar... or lumpfish roe for cheapskates!
- Heavy knitted sweaters in bright, bold, Christmassy prints:
We are certain that the only people who buy these are those unfortunate
tourists who mistakenly though that Norway would be warm in July,
and arrived with only shorts and a T-shirt.
- Trolls: What is the deal with Norway and trolls?
- Viking hats: Yes Tonya had to fight with Paul to stop him buying
one!
VOSS
There is a trip called "Norway in a Nutshell" which
costs a sweet fortune. Luckily a lot of the route is free, or
at least half price, with an InterRail ticket - So we set off
to make the journey under our own steam. We took the train from
Bergen to Voss and spent the night at the hostel there. It is
in a beautiful location, right on a lake, which would be heaven
if only the sun would come out.
From Voss we had to take a bus to Gudvangen. We waited at the
bus station with a couple of English guys. All four of us studied
the HSD bus timetable and agreed that there would be an HSD bus
to Sogndal at 10:50am which would stop at Gudvangen. We waited
and waited. It´s not like Norway for the bus to be late.
Finally we asked a passerby and found out that the bus had been
and gone... except it wasn´t an HSD bus, it was a coach
full of elderly American women which was signed with destination
"Lillehammer". We had watched this coach come in, and
had assumed it belonged to an organized package tour. So, we had
to wait for the 1pm bus. Luckily one English guy had a guitar
with him which helped pass the time.
From Gudvangen we took a cruise on the fjord which was wonderful.
The scenery was spectacular and the cruise commentary was fascinating.
We saw villages of 14 inhabitants whose only form of transport
is the daily boat! Imagine what it is like to live there in winter
with snow for 6 months and 24 hours of darkness for 3 months!
Unfortunately, it wasn´t long before the clouds rolled in
and obscured our views. The heavens opened just as we were about
to pitch our tent at Flam campsite.
FLAM
Flam is basically a car park with a couple of cafes and supermarket
dotted around it. Right in the middle of the carpark is the train
station with a set of rail tracks which come down from the mountain
and terminate at two huge bumper-barriers. This is one end of
the Flam-Myrdal private railway.
We got on the train and an American guy got on too. He wanted
to make sure he got a seat with a good view and he asked us "Which
way do you think is forwards?". Are all Americans this dim,
or is it just the ones that go travelling? Because we've certainly
met more than our fair share of them.
The Flamsbana rail journey had some more great scenery, and even
stopped at a waterfall to allow us to get off and take photos.
The train then continued on to Myrdal leaving two American backpacker
girls merrily taking photos of the waterfall. I hope someone thinks
to take their packs off the train and leave them for them to pick
up at Myrdal!
TRONDHEIM
We had hoped to travel from Myrdal northwards to Trondheim, but
we didn´t want to pay for a bus when we had an InterRail
ticket, so we ended up going back to Oslo for a connection to
Trondheim. This journey took 13 hours and we arrived in Trondheim
at midnight. It was a strange sensation knowing how late it was,
but being able to see. We got out of Trondheim as soon as we could
- it was raining when we arrived, and still raining when we left.
There was really only one thing to see - a church that charged
NOK35 to enter.
We took the overnight train from Trondheim to Fauske with a load
of Aussie backpackers who hung their damp washing all along the
train´s luggage racks to dry.
The sun was out and the scenery was stunning - for hours and hours
we passed fjords dotted with tiny islands, forests, lakes, the
odd wooden house, hills, craggy mountains and more waterfalls
than we could count. We were tired but at 11pm the sun was shining
so brightly and the scenery was so incredible that missing it
by going to sleep would have been a crime. At midnight it was
still light enough to read, although the sun had just dipped below
the horizon. We stayed awake as long as we could just watching
the scenery, but eventually we both fell asleep.
NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
At 7am we were woken up by an announcement over the train's loudspeaker
that we were about to cross the Artic Circle. The scenery just
got better and better the further north we went. There were hardly
any towns... even spotting isolated houses was difficult.
NARVIK
Aside from seeing the Midnight Sun and doing some hiking around
Narvik, the other thing to see is the LKAB iron ore docks. We
did a guided tour which was fairly interesting... as far as docks
go! It did give us a chance to chat to a local guy who explained
what it is like here in winter. From the beginning of November
to the end of February he does not see the sun! It is worse for
him than others because he lives in a valley and the hills block
what little sun there is. Apparently flat areas get enough sun
to read a book outside for two hours at lunchtime, but after that
it is too dark. No wonder Narvik is full of beauty parlours offering
solariums for rent!
NOTE
OK, so it's not just Americans that are stupid... we just booked
a hostel in Beijing for July when we won't get there until the
end of August! Duh! |
